Established in 2006, American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) provides critical perspectives and analysis of indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society. Scroll down for links to book reviews, Native media, and more.

Thursday, November 06, 2014

HOW TO WRITE A DYSTOPIAN YOUNG ADULT NOVEL (or short story) WITH NATIVE CHARACTERS FOR FUN AND PROFIT, by Kim Shuck and Beverly Slapin

Editor's Note: Kim Shuck and Beverly Slapin submitted this satirical "how to" piece in response to my review of Neal Shusterman and Michelle Knowlden's short story, Unstrung. Shusterman responded to that review (see point 13 below). I am currently working on a review of the first three books in Shusterman's series.

HOW TO WRITE A DYSTOPIAN YOUNG ADULT NOVEL (or short story)

WITH NATIVE CHARACTERS FOR FUN AND PROFIT

by Kim Shuck and Beverly Slapin

Strive to know nothing about the real lives and
histories of Native peoples. Knowing is counterproductive and can be used
against you if you accidentally let something real slip in. Do
not do any research at all.
That way, your tribe will be a genuine object of your invention, and no one
will be able to accuse you of cultural appropriation.

Invent a tribe. Give
it a name that sounds kind of sort of like an Indian word. Or forget it—don’t
give your tribe an actual name. Rather, refer to your tribe in a way that
relates to a well-known stereotype. “People of Chance,” as an example, works
well, because it will remind readers of casinos and how wealthy Indian people
are. If you’re a little unsure, feel free to work in a backstory about gaming
and skilled tribal lawyers.

Write as though your invented tribe is just like any
other transplanted culture with the exception of periodic decorative localized
mythology. There should be no long memory stories of things that have happened
where your tribe lives. Rather, for instance, you might go on and on about your
tribe’s ostentatious show of material wealth—curbs that “gleam with gold,” an abundance of luxury cars, “gold plaques embedded in the adobe walls” and everyone wearing business suits “finer
than the best designer fashions.”

Assign at least
some of your tribal characters names that sound vaguely “Indian.” To do that,
make sure that the names contain lots of vowels; something like “Chowilawu” might be a good example. Don’t worry that someone might think
the names of your Indian characters mean something. They don’t have to—they’re
Indian.

Describe your tribal characters as having small but
important Indian mannerisms. For example, make sure that at least one of your
Indian characters sits cross-legged on an animal skin. That will remind readers
of the good times in kindergarten when they were instructed to sit “Indian
style” for long periods of time.

Make sure that
the main character (preferably white and male) bonds with a member of your
invented culture. Your Indian character need not be developed in any sense,
because his only purpose is to teach your main character a major life lesson,
after which he expires or goes back to whatever mystical land he comes from.
Feel free to use this Native mentor in the style of any of the old tropes: Black nanny, Asian martial arts master, or supernaturally animated
Indian doll who lives in a cupboard.

Create new racial slurs to take the place of
discredited old ones. “Redskins,” for instance, would be totally last century
for a dystopian story. Try something like “slot monger,” or something else that
you can make sound vaguely sexual, yet have a backstory that creates
deniability.

Put the power in the hands of your invented
culture. Make sure that some of the members of your tribe express xenophobic
opinions, such as referring to other tribes as “Low-Rez.” This will make the
point that xenophobia is logical when it exists in empowered communities.

Because there is no cultural attribution, feel
free to use whatever stereotype or debunked expectation you may envision. It’s
totally appropriate in this case to evoke offensively weird stories as long as you
don’t name your tribe. For instance, you can have characters in your tribe
hunting for a male mountain lion in order to transplant his heart into a dying
Native elder for whom this animal is his “spirit guide.”

Make sure to work in tropes that are pseudo-spiritual-cultural
givens for your tribe: spirit animals and vision quests, for instance. And,
above all, make sure that your main Native character, despite—or because of—his
otherworldly psychic gifts, gets killed off.

Now, take out your checklist. Invented tribe—check.
No real reference to land, language, culture, community–check. No history or
memory stories—check. No Indigenous meaning to names or anything else—check.
Stereotypical mannerisms—check. Trope-type mentor—check. New racial slur to
replace old ones—check. Xenophobic power—check. Offensively weird
rituals—check. More tropes—check. Main Native character gets killed off—check.

Done! Now sit back and collect your starred reviews
for creating a multicultural dystopian novel with mystical Indian characters
whose only raison d’etre is to interact with a white hero in a mentor role
worthy of inclusion in a 1950s flick.

On the off chance that you are criticized for
inaccuracy, cultural appropriation, racism, or just plain abysmal writing, make sure to respondimmediately—preferably
with a vague reference to political correctness, reverse racism and/or the
humorless nature of the critic. Mention how sensitive you tried to be. Use the
phrase “considered carefully” to insure that everyone understands how hard you
worked at appropriate representation. You can always fall back on the fact that
you invented your tribe and therefore are immune to criticism, but it is worth
trying to put the reviewer on the defensive—especially if the reviewer happens
to be Native and has worked in the area of American Indians in children’s
literature for many years.

—Kim Shuck and Beverly Slapin

(We would like to acknowledge Neal Shusterman and Michelle Knowlden—and the
many other authors of “children’s books about Indians” [you know who you
are]—without whose important research and writing these helpful hints would not
have been possible. Wado, y’all!)

1 comment:

American Indian? Or, Native American? There is no agreement among Native peoples. Both are used. It is best to be specific. Example: Instead of "Debbie Reese, a Native American," say "Debbie Reese, a Nambe Pueblo Indian woman."